OVP: Adapted Screenplay (2021)

OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2021)

The Nominees Were...

Sian Heder, CODA

Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe, Drive My Car

Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, & Eric Roth, Dune

Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter

Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

My Thoughts: Similar to the Original Screenplay race (links to all past contests are at the bottom of this page), Best Adapted Screenplay had four Best Picture nominees and one additional citation, in this case a film nominated for two acting trophies.  As a result, this isn't the most creative bunch of contenders, with Oscar thinking outside of the box.  It is, however, a pretty good list of options.  2021 was a solid year for movies in terms of quality even if it was clearly a growing pains year in terms of box office, with the streaming vs. box office debate raging (for no good reason...streaming was always a dead end for the movie industry).

We're going to start with CODA, which is bizarre because this is easily the longest we've gone without discussing a Best Picture winner in the my ballots.  Nominated for only three categories (and winning them all), I was one of the rare people to see CODA in a regular, first-run theater (not in a festival or on AppleTV)...in fact I saw all of the Best Picture nominees of 2021 in theaters.  I'm also one of the people (on Film Twitter, at least) to genuinely like it.  This film is not breaking any new ground, and winning Best Picture was too much prestige/pressure to put on it, but this is a solidly-structured film & heartwarming.  That feels like more of a credit to its acting ensemble than its writing, but this is a script filled with humor & strong touches (Kotsur & Matlin's horny, endearing relationship...Daniel Durant's excessive hotness played for maximum effect), so it's very hard to be mad that it did so well.

That said, Jane Campion's work on The Power of the Dog, which missed as a result of CODA's victory, is playing in a different league.  A three-act play that unfolds like that's both necessary AND not too overly-plotted, the movie positions its characters like chess pieces, but ones whose abilities you don't understand until the very end.  Cumberbatch's great soliloquies throughout are credited (appropriately) to the actor's strange dialect and unnerving demeanor, but they're also a credit to Campion, knowing the right way to have him speak the truth (about Bronco Henry) while also terrifying any man who dares to challenge him.

The Lost Daughter, like CODA, is also getting its first mention here, and is penned by the rare person to be nominated for both acting & writing, Maggie Gyllenhaal.  The movie is very good at wringing the unusual tension of everyday life and escalating it to the point where you feel like you're in a horror movie...there's something bizarre in how it treats white lies & unusual social situations in such a fashion that you are gripping your chair.  But the flashback scenes are underwritten, as if we're being left out of things on purpose to make the present more ambiguous.  I feel like this takes you out of the film more than it does keeps you on edge.

Drive My Car is in a similar boat.  The way the movie is structured and how it uses key aspects of the plot to drive additional emotions (here, instead of tension, it becomes grief), is brilliant, and I think the script needs some credit for sticking to that framing device, particularly the ingenious use of the credits a third of the way through the film.  But the movie, if we're being picky (and this is for an Oscar, we have to be), doesn't flesh out side characters enough (the theater owners, for example, are poorly inserted), and I don't know that all of the Uncle Vanya motif works.

The final nominee is Dune, which is partially an unusual nomination given that SciFi rarely shows up here.  But as someone who tried to get through Frank Herbert's slog of a book (I had a boyfriend who said it was his favorite book so I was reading it because I am that guy who genuinely reads your recommendations if he likes you, but the second we broke up it went back on my bookshelf to collect dust as it was SO needlessly dense), I was impressed at how well the film adapts.  It has a difficult task of both not making the film feel like Star Wars (George Lucas heavily borrowed from Herbert's novel), but also trying to engage in fleshing out a relatively thinly-plotted story.  It does that with both, giving us clear stakes, and enigma without it feeling annoying that we won't resolve until the second film.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine their writing categories so there is no adapted or original distinction, and in this case most of the nominees were originals, so we just had one (losing) nominee in The Power of the Dog.  WGA splits the categories, so we had CODA as the winner against Dune, Nightmare Alley, Tick Tick Boom, and West Side Story (WGA has weird eligibility rules, so I would assume that's why we aren't seeing The Power of the Dog), while BAFTA also went with CODA (I had no memory of that), against the exact Oscar lineup.  In terms of sixth place, it was West Side Story.  At the time I was over-confident of it (proof that you can't always trust Oscar narratives retroactively), but apparently it being a musical was too big of an obstacle even with a Best Picture nomination & Tony Kushner writing it.

Films I Would Have Nominated: As I said above, there's no bad nominee here-all of these are good movies and thumbs up screenplays.  But that's not to say that there's not room for improvement.  West Side Story, for example, modernizes the script without making it feel inauthentic or "catered" to a modern audience, which is hard to do for a film whose racially-insensitive initial casting felt like something for which the filmmakers wanted to overtly compensate.

Oscar's Choice: If they'd liked Power of the Dog better, it'd be easy to see Jane Campion getting multiple Oscars.  But given she already had a Best Director statue hand-wrapped for her, CODA prevailed in a big way.

My Choice: The Power of the Dog, and it ain't close.  Dune is my second, and it's a good script (it'll medal from me), but come on now-Campion's script is so much better her loss will confound future Oscar historians.  Behind these two I'll do Drive My Car, CODA, and The Lost Daughter, in that order.

Those are my thoughts-what about you?  Do you want to go with Oscar's feel-good CODA or you more inclined to the escalating stakes of The Power of the Dog?  For those who have read Frank Herbert's book, are you as impressed as I am by how well they brought it to the screen?  And do you think Oscar's aversion to musicals in this category is fair?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2021: Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2021

Past Best Adapted Screenplay Contests: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Sherrybaby (2006)

Film: Sherrybaby (2006)
Stars: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brad William Henke, Sam Bottoms, Kate Burton, Giancarlo Esposito, Danny Trejo
Director: Laurie Collyer
Oscar History: No nominations, though Gyllenhaal received a Globe nod for Drama, so you know it was close.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Every awards year, there are nominations, frequently in the female acting races but occasionally in writing or music, where you don't know whether or not you are sitting down for quality filmmaking or your cinematic vegetables.  In 2006, the Best Actress race was brimming with five of the best contenders you ever did see for the trophy (it's worth noting that all of that year's nominated quintet either had, or would go on to have, an Oscar, making it a true rarity in terms of AMPAS).  That left a cold shoulder for Maggie Gyllenhaal, who probably would have been nominated in a less spirited contest after working for a number of years and being, at that point, an actor who probably "needed" to have Oscar-nominated in front of her name (she would gain that title for her less inspired work in CrazyHeart three years later).  Gyllenhaal's Sherrybaby is the sort of character study that the acting branch loves, but that rarely makes for particularly arresting cinema.  It's all fine acting, but usually that's just a crutch for a movie that's not very good.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Sherry (Gyllenhaal), a woman recently out of prison and on parole who frequently trades her body for a good time, advantage in a situation, or just out of sheer boredom, and is a drug addict who is trying not so desperately to stay clean (she's an all talk, no work sort of rehab entrant).  The film follows her as she tries to understand why her young daughter Alexis doesn't want anything to do with her, and blames her brother Bobby (Henke) and his wife for turning the daughter, whom they have raised for two years, against her.

The film follows pretty much every formula you could imagine, and we frequently have to see Sherry go through what is clearly poor decision-making (she has sex with a man to get a job, she chooses to answer even the slightest of turns in the road with a bump or a bender).  Usually when a film is going through the motions of drugs and alcohol, we get a redemptive moment, but here Laurie Collyer breaks that cycle-we don't end with any sort of redemption for Sherry except that she decides it would be a bad idea not to break her parole and kidnap her child, instead bringing her daughter back to her brother, and then likely heading off to rehab once more.

This break might, if the film was better, actually be a cool way to throw off viewers of such a film.  After all, the lack of a cheesy redemption certainly helps the central performance in terms of realism, but unfortunately Collyer has already sacrificed realism much earlier in the picture.  Sherry gets lucky break after lucky break, frequently ending up getting out of scrapes that should have almost certainly sent her back to prison.  We also, without any redemption, don't end up liking Sherry even when the script clearly wants us to in the end.  After all, she's a terrible mother; someone haunted by unfortunate demons and to be pitied, but the woman we see onscreen has no business taking care of the daughter she treats more like something to play with than something to nurture and care for.  That's probably the goal, but Collyer's script (she wrote and directed), meanders too often and doesn't really seem to have a point-the film jaunts toward sympathy or realism, but it can't have both and it tries desperately to accomplish this feat.

The film isn't totally wasted, though, as this is easily the best work I've seen from Gyllenhaal.  Her Sherry is intoxicating, but never overtly so so that we are clearly seeing the highs and lows of her decisions (she's not Sandra Bullock in 28 Days, for example, a rom-com queen pretending to be an addict).  Her performance feels deeply natural, and she sells the script as believably as it's possible to push something that somehow was based on a true story (it had to be a loose true story).  Her performance is raw and Gyllenhaal isn't at all encumbered by the vanity of wanting to appear likable.  In a year like 2006 she didn't deserve an Oscar nomination, but it's a pity she scored it three years later for something so much lesser than what she was doing here, even if the film was kind of dreck.

Those are my thoughts on this largely forgotten movie (being an Oscar also-ran doesn't help your longevity-just ask Cake).  What are yours?  Do you think this is the best of Gyllenhaal's work (I'm still waiting on Secretary, though it's not far away in my Netflix queue)?  Is anyone a particularly large fan of this film (it did surprisingly well with critics)?  And does anyone want to make the case for putting Gyllenhaal over one of the five nominated ladies at the Oscars in 2006?  The comments are there for the taking!

2015 Emmy Predictions: The Miniseries

And now we transition from the shows you watch religiously to the TV movies that you have heard of starring the people you know as movie stars.  Yes, it's the miniseries/TV movie categories, which frequently feature the likes of HBO and PBS, though it's worth noting that at least a couple of other channels have snuck in with their own brand of worthiness.  Let's start, shall we?

Best Miniseries

American Crime

American Horror Story: Freak Show

The Honorable Woman

Olive Kitteridge

Wolf Hall

The Lowdown: I think now that Ryan Murphy has admitted that the seasons are interconnected that it might be even more questionable whether or not American Horror Story should be considered legal here, but even so it won't be interrupting the clear winner here.  HBO may not have had what one would consider a stellar miniseries season this past year, but without much competition (and boy howdy is this season generally pretty weak for Mini/TV Movies) I don't think that will matter as Elizabeth Strout's critically-acclaimed novel will surely end up at the top of the mountain.

My Prediction: Oliver Kitteridge

Best TV Movie

Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case

Bessie

Grace of Monaco

Hello Ladies: The Movie

Killing Jesus

Nightingale

The Lowdown: Really?  We really needed six in this category which managed to bring together Bill O'Reilly, a spinoff movie of a TV series no one watched, and a movie considered so bad that it couldn't get a theatrical release despite starring Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman?  I don't throw Poirot in there mostly because it's a swan song and I'm still bummed that David Suchet didn't score a "life achievement" sort of nomination in a pretty paltry season, but you know in a normal year it wouldn't have stood a prayer.  Either way, this is clearly between Bessie and Nightingale, and considering it had the higher-profile and Nightingale has an easy trophy to hand out as a consolation prize in acting, the blues singer is one of the simplest picks of the night.

My Prediction: Bessie

Best Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Adrien Brody, Houdini

Ricky Gervais, Derek: The Final Chapter

Timothy Hutton, American Crime

Richard Jenkins, Olive Kitteridge

David Oyelowo, Nightingale

Mark Rylance, Wolf Hall

The Lowdown: I like to imagine the Emmys and the Oscars have a little bit of a rivalry, with the Oscars being the star older brother to the Emmys shy, under-performing sister (their cousin Tony is the guy whom everyone looks nervously around when Grandma Peabody says "I wish he'd find a nice girl").  As a result of this, I think that the Oscars clear snub of David Oyelowo and the backlash against them will only strengthen his hand in trying to take home a different trophy this year.  Richard Jenkins theoretically has a chance if Olive is a blowout, but I doubt it will come to that.

My Prediction: David Oyelowo

Best Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Honorable Woman

Felicity Huffman, American Crime

Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Queen Latifah, Bessie

Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge

Emma Thompson, Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center

The Lowdown: An extremely prestigious affair, with all six women sporting Oscar nominations to go with their Emmy nods, though I suspect most of them don't have a prayer.  The best bets here are on Latifah, McDormand, and Lange (Gyllenhaal did win a surprise Golden Globe, and theoretically could score but I suspect not with the Emmys who aren't as likely to surprise on TV as the Globes).  McDormand has the most lauded program and doesn't have an Emmy (unlike Lange, who has three), and as a result I think that may be enough for her to seal-the-deal and get the Triple Crown, but don't entirely discount the other two women if you're being ballsy in your predictions.

My Prediction: Frances McDormand

Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Richard Cabral, American Crime

Damien Lewis, Wolf Hall

Bill Murray, Olive Kitteridge

Denis O'Hare, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Michael Kenneth Williams, Bessie

Finn Wittrock, American Horror Story: Freak Show

The Lowdown: In a perfect world, this would be an easy win for Finn Wittrock, who created the most iconic performance of this bunch and had a "star is born" year in general (plus, the women on AHS always get all of the love).  However, the Emmys like their winners a bit sturdier than that, and Bill Murray hasn't won an Emmy award in 38 years.  He's also starring in the much buzzier miniseries, and doesn't have a costar to compete with (one has to assume that Denis O'Hare has Emmy fans considering he keeps getting nominated for these nothing roles).  As a result, expect Murray, if he shows up, to give a speech social media goes gaga over.

My Prediction: Bill Murray

Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

Angela Bassett, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Freak Show

Zoe Kazan, Olive Kitteridge

Regina King, American Crime

Mo'Nique, Bessie

Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Freak Show

The Lowdown: After four nominations a lot of people seem to think this is Sarah Paulson's year, and indeed she did have a truly showy spot this past season as a two-headed woman (which had to have gained notice from voters).  Her competition, though, isn't a bunch of slouches, particularly Regina King (who has been a TV trouper for years and just got her first Emmy citation) and Kathy Bates (who won last year and is gunning for a third-never discount the Emmys ability to add yet another trophy to a shelf).  Paulson's biggest threat, though, is Oscar winner Mo'Nique, who likely isn't campaigning too heartily (it's about the performance, not the politics), but is universally regarded as an acting titan after her bravura work in Precious.  Considering the struggles she's had to make movies since then, one wonders if the Academy's acting branch will stand tall with her.  She's the underdog, but not by much.

My Prediction: I'm going to go with a rare upset (I don't usually do that since awards shows have gotten considerably more predictable in the past five years) and predict Mo'Nique.

And there it is-who do you think is taking the trophy?  Whom are you cheering for?  Share in the comments!

Emmy Predictions: The Miniseries

We'll finish off the Emmy predictions with a look at the Miniseries/TV Movie categories, the categories that always get a bit of a brush through at the ceremony, but feature the people whom you actually expect to see at an awards show (the movie stars), so it's hardly something you can relegate to the Creative Arts Emmys.  If you missed earlier this week, don't forget to check out the Drama and Comedy predictions:

Best Limited Series

1. Olive Kitteridge
2. American Crime
3. American Horror Story: Freak Show
4. The Honorable Woman
5. Wolf Hall

The Lowdown: This is always the place to over-bet on HBO, not only because they campaign the hardest, but usually because they have the legit best contenders.  As a result, we've got Olive Kitteridge, the likely victor, on the top, though the network's only other major contender (The Casual Vacancy) has no buzz and I'm taking out for now.  Instead, I've got the rare nominee from a major network (American Crime), the perennial nominee American Horror Story (only at the Emmys could a perennial nominee be in the Limited Series category), the prestige-y Wolf Hall (PBS usually slices a nod here too), and the Sundance hit The Honorable Woman.  I suspect that there will be love for Texas Rising in other Emmy categories, especially in the tech slots, but both it and The Missing seem too small to take out this quintet.

Best TV Movie

1. Bessie
2. Derek: The Final Chapter
3. Nightingale
4. Killing Jesus
5. Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case

The Lowdown: Eww, this category looks awful.  No wonder Bessie seems so out-in-front here, there's nothing really to choose from (someone seriously dropped the ball here as every decent contender seems to be in the miniseries category).  Derek made it before and if The Big C and 24 are any indication should have no trouble scoring a couple of nods in an easier slate of nominees, and Nightingale may be largely forgotten but with an up-and-coming star and a weak bench to compete against is a certainty (David Oyelowo should succeed here where he couldn't at the Oscars).  The final two slots I'm going with Killing Jesus because apparently it's a frontrunner (ugh though-Bill O'Reilly with an Emmy?  Blech!) and Agatha Christie's Poirot, a swan song for a famed series.

Best Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. David Oyelowo (Nightingale)
2. Richard Jenkins (Olive Kitteridge)
3. Mark Rylance (Wolf Hall)
4. Bill Paxton (Texas Rising)
5. David Suchet (Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain, Poirot's Last Case)

The Lowdown: I am near certain that Oyelowo wins this one, so it's really just four guys going for an "honor just to be nominated."  That means that Richard Jenkins, who is the well-noted lead of Olive Kitteridge will make it, as will Bill Paxton who is enjoying a nice resurgence in TV movies at the moment (at this rate he might well win an Emmy soon), and Mark Rylance, who has owned Broadway for the past decade and seems likely to be both an Emmy and an Oscar nominee by year's end.  The final slot I'm going to do my true random prediction of the bunch (I haven't really gone out on a limb quite yet in any of these predictions) and go with David Suchet, who has been a TV icon as Poirot for years now without ever being cited, and it's not like Ricky Gervais or Timothy Hutton really need points for largely forgotten work this year.  Either of them make more sense (or perhaps even Oscar-winner Adrien Brody in Houdini), but Suchet seems like a nice way to honor a longtime TV trouper.

Best Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge)
2. Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Honorable Woman)
3. Queen Latifah (Bessie)
4. Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
5. Felicity Huffman (American Crime)

The Lowdown: In this category, "always go with the Oscar nominees" is a solid maxim, and it's completely true this year.  While some of these women are more known for television than film (namely Felicity Huffman, though lately Jessica Lange as well), all five have at least one Oscar nomination and in two cases a number of them.  Each of them have dominated the conversation so much that the only other person who could remotely compete appears to be Frances O'Connor in The Missing, but I don't think she'll have enough fame to get past this list (maybe if it had been Frances Conroy).  The best question here is whether Frances McDormand will actually show up to pickup her Triple Crown, or will she bow out on the off-chance she's going to lose to Gyllenhaal or Latifah?

Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. Bill Murray (Olive Kitteridge)
2. Stephen Rea (The Honorable Woman)
3. Joanthan Pryce (Wolf Hall)
4. Damian Lewis (Wolf Hall)
5. Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story: Freak Show)

The Lowdown: If there's one rule in doing any sort of awards' predictions, it's to ignore your own personal opinions and always just go with the buzz.  Most of the time this is easy, as frequently the buzz and my own opinions are easy to separate.  For example, I can see that Damian Lewis and Jonathan Pryce both have that aura of former nominee and prestige, or that Stephen Rea's an Oscar nominee which should help him for The Honorable Woman, or that Bill Murray is a movie star icon in a major production, likely meaning not only a nomination but a win.  However, I just cannot buy the buzz behind Michael Chiklis, who was in every channel imaginable worse than Finn Wittrock in Freak Show.  It makes sense that the Emmy-winning Chiklis beats the ingenue and part of me is expecting it, but it will break my heart not to predict Wittrock for the performance of a lifetime, and so I am going with him, wrongness be damned.

Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/TV Movie

1. Mo'Nique (Bessie)
2. Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
3. Kathy Bates (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
4. Janet McTeer (The Honorable Woman)
5. Susan Sarandon (Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe)

The Lowdown: I got a little bit off-the-track in the past category, but won't be in this one.  I know what side Emmy's bread is buttered on, and big names mean nominations (just ask Ellen Burstyn).  Susan Sarandon may be in a tiny film that got minimal plaudits, but she's also Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, who has never won an Emmy in four nominations and she's competing in supporting not the more competitive lead, so that should be enough to make it short of Alfre Woodard being in a show I haven't heard of yet.  The rest of the nominees seem set-Cynthia Nixon, Angela Bassett, and Zoe Kazan all have potential, but Sarandon makes the most sense on-paper, and that's where I'm headed.

Those are my final nominations (I don't really do the reality categories).  What are your thoughts?  Who do you agree with and who are you thinking has no shot?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Frank (2014)

Film: Frank (2014)
Stars: Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, Michael Fassbender
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Sometimes I sort of wonder what the point of hiring certain actors are for roles where they disguise their gorgeous, otherworldly beauty.  Look at something like Charlize Theron in Monster or Johnny Depp in pretty much every movie of the past decade.  Movie stars are a rare breed in the vein of giant pandas or thoughtful politicians, so I have never quite gotten the appeal of covering up their faces in roles, which was one of my principle problems with the film Frank, a movie that has a fine enough plot but for some reason casts Michael Fassbender, arguably the handsomest man in motion pictures, as a character whose face is obfuscated throughout most of it, completely hidden behind a giant fake head.

(Spoilers Ahead) This is partially why I avoided the film when it was released in theaters last year, even though it had solid reviews and was released in that drought period where art houses even consider doing something truly atrocious like playing The Avengers in 3-D (I just saw yesterday that mine is doing this, and yet I still can’t find Tangerines in theaters anywhere).  The movie is about a young, aspiring rock-and-roll musician named Jon (Gleeson) who, by happenstance, ends up as a member of an eclectic alternative band, including a continually angry theremin player named Clara (Gyllenhaal) and a lead singer named Frank (Fassbender) who is consistently positive and kind, and creates fascinating if totally eclectic music.  Also, he constantly wears a giant paper-mache head over his own head, signifying some sort of mental illness.

The film's plot proceeds in a completely routine direction-we find that Jon loves the band, fits right in, and is enamored with Frank while competition for Clara.  If you want to do a feminist reading of the movie (which on occasion I feel you should, if only to keep your eyes firmly open), it's not particularly kind to women, as Clara is overtaken for being more powerful than Jon throughout the movie, even if the ending is a bit kinder to her than he.

The film's routineness (rise, fall, rise again) means that you have to rely upon performance, music, and the little touches to see if you rise above it (really, there's only forms on conflict in literature, so everything comes down to these touches).  The film's performances are all strong, with Fassbender as the standout, though I still think he's wasted in this sort of role considering how he should be playing characters where, while his looks aren't center-stage, they should at least be on-display (you think Cary Grant or Ava Gardner would have sacrificed their prime beauty years like that?).  I quite like Domhnall Gleeson's naivete, and the way that his inner-monologue shows how oblivious he is to reality, in many ways mirroring that of Frank himself.  The film doesn't have the musical inventiveness to classify Frank as a genius like it does while Jon decidedly is not, but that's always a tall order when you have entirely new music.

My biggest problem with the film may have been that it plays the twee-ness for a bit too long.  The film has this motley, Wes Anderson-style crew of characters, and it's hard to see how they functioned without dying before Jon joined the group-there's no sense of reality, even around Scoot McNairy's band manager Don, and you are left to wonder what exactly the purpose is here.  If it's simply that misfits need to fit together, it feels a bit pedantic and cruel to shove Jon out of the group, as he is also a misfit, which is what happens in the end.  Really, the ending left a bitter taste in my mouth even if the first half of the film was occasionally watchable-why should Jon and not Clara or Frank be blamed for trying to pursue the dreams of everyone involved.

These are the sorts of questions I don't feel like the film is really willing to answer, getting bogged down with a cast of very hip young actors and occasionally compelling story mechanisms.  At least these were my thoughts-I always love to get yours.  What did you think of Frank?  Do you also find it annoying when beautiful actors get shoved behind makeup and prosthetics?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

OVP: Supporting Actress (2009)

OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2009)

The Nominees Were...

Penelope Cruz, Nine

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Mo'Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

My Thoughts: And let's do one more before we break it up with another post (then we'll hit the Big 4).  Considering the recent bout of category fraud that has hit a number of races in recent years (Julia Roberts...seriously?) it's quite impressive that all five of these women seem to have fallen into actually being a supporting performance, which is definitely cause for celebration.  Gyllenhaal arguably comes the closest to lead, but I feel stays on the sides enough to not quibble.  And there's my segway into the race-let's start with Maggie.

Gyllenhaal's nomination was the giant surprise of Oscar nomination morning.  Aside from not knowing what would happen in the Best Picture race (A Serious Man triumphing over Invictus is definitely a headscratcher) and The Secret of Kells stunner, the only other real surprise that morning was that Gyllenhaal made it over a number of more likely contenders.  Gyllenhaal likely benefited from what was a major Jeff Bridges love-in at the time; the man could do no wrong.  As a result, she got an Oscar nomination many of us had been expecting for her eventually, but unfortunately it was for a role that was SO poorly cast.  Gyllenhaal cannot seem to get inside of this woman-she's far better at dark comedy, and this is a dramatic character study.  It's the sort of role that Marisa Tomei was born to play.  With Gyllenhaal, she tries to find some wryness where there is none, and doesn't get the emotional bouts with alcoholism and her inner demons that Bridges does to flesh out her character.  Plus-that soppy ending does her no favors, and she doesn't know how to sell conceivable forgiveness in such a quick time frame.  A throwaway nomination for an actress who can do so much better.

That's kind of how I felt, quite frankly, about Penelope Cruz in Nine, to be honest.  This is an actress who has been consistently spectacular, and was coming off a trio of great performances (is this streak over now-I feel like while Cruz will stage a comeback the heat from this giant brilliant run has subsided...that's what working with Johnny Depp will do to you, apparently).  The problem I have with this performance, and the movie in general, is that I don't feel a lot of what she's feeling-she doesn't have the same connection with her character (who is mostly surface level) that her costar Cotillard is able to achieve.  I know it's not in the spirit of the OVP to compare a non-nominated performance (click the link up top for a further explanation, but the goal really is to be an Academy voter and just consider these five women), but it's hard not to when you have such a strongly felt character happening on the other side of the screen.  Cruz can sell sex, and her "Call from the Vatican" is a sultry delight, but this is all surface level, and a performance that got nominated more from the heat of the performer than from the actual work onscreen.

The same could not be said for Mo'Nique (I'm throwing you off and not starting or ending with the presumed frontrunner, but putting her squarely in the middle).  So much has been written about this work I don't really know where to begin, or if I can possibly be original (or not just throw out superlatives).  What makes Mary Jones so special is the way that Mo'Nique grounds her into our world.  This is the sort of monster that we could encounter every day-we see people in the supermarket and at the bus stop who could be Mary Jones-regular, average people with a nightmare in them.  Mo'Nique finds that terror in her character-think of that monologue at the end, where Mary confesses to the abuse, of knowing that her daughter was being raped, and then justifying it in her words.  So many great speeches in movies are from characters who have clearly rehearsed them.  Mary Jones is not a character that thought she'd ever need this speech, and you can see the ever-so-real pain in her eyes as she says things she didn't realize she believed.  All three women (even Mariah) sell this scene brilliantly, but it's Mo'Nique that makes it devastating.  Her Mary is a monster, but one that is grounded in true life, and that's what's so chilling about her work.

It's hard to come off of Mo'Nique, but I do want to be an advocate for one Anna Kendrick.  I know that she's found her niche in musicals (god bless her for that), but her work in Up in the Air is fascinating.  I know this wasn't a performance suited for everyone, but it was for me.  I love the way that we're left to believe that Vera is the true threat to George Clooney's Ryan Bingham, but in reality it is bright, young Natalie.  She's the embodiment of his worst nightmare-being on the other end of the table, forced to find a new worldview.  Kendrick knows this, and though Ntalie is shaky and constantly looking for reassurance, she has the knowledge to be able to take the upper-hand occasionally (and sometimes without realizing how she did it).  And the moment where Natalie actually has to look someone in the eyes, over the computer, and see what she's doing-it's haunting acting from Kendrick.

Her costar gains points over Kendrick in the sense that she seems to know her character much better than Kendrick does, but doesn't always share that with the audience.  Farmiga's Alex is a standard movie trope-the gorgeous fantasy woman, the perfect companion to Clooney's Ryan, and during the early scenes with the seduction and them showing off their cards-it's soulmate sort of stuff, even for potentially soulless people.  The later scenes, though, when Farmiga's secret family comes to light and her coldness pulls through-we see in Clooney's eyes what this is doing, but we don't quite get there with Farmiga.  She's not bad (she's never bad), but I don't feel the pull that I did with Clooney's work in these same scenes-Farmiga doesn't seem to give as much in what her character can show, there's no slips and she's clearly trying to make one happen.  It's definitely a performance with promise and some of it is delivered (and she can connect sexy to her character better than Cruz did), but it's not in a tier by itself.

Other Precursor Contenders: This category wasn't quite as lockstep as some of the other fields, though the Globes were close.  Mo'Nique won, and all but Gyllenhaal were there, with Julianne Moore in A Single Man taking the final slot.  Gyllenhaal also missed at the SAG Awards with Diane Kruger taking her spot for Inglourious Basterds (Mo'Nique won again).  Finally, there were the BAFTA Awards (who were off on their own beat in 2009 which was great in such a monotonous awards season), giving the trophy to Mo'Nique but skipping both Gyllenhaal and Cruz in favor of two actresses in Nowhere Boy (Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas).  For the sixth place, I think I'd call it for Julianne Moore, but this was a VERY tight race.  I honestly could have made a very solid argument that Samantha Morton in The Messenger or Marion Cotillard in Nine could also have been sixth place (when everyone is going to cheer for one person to win, the nominations can be surprising-see also 2003 Best Actress race).

Actors I Would Have Nominated: I would probably throw out three of the nominees, and definitely find room for Julianne Moore's boozy frenemy in A Single Man, Melanie Laurent's silent warrior in Inglourious Basterds, and especially Marion Cotillard's neglected ex-wife in Nine.  Cotillard's inability to get an Oscar nomination since her giant victory for La Vie en Rose continues to baffle me (I personally would have given her three since then), but for some reason the Academy cooled on her right around the time the rest of the world felt enamored.

Oscar’s Choice: It was clearly more about the performance than the politics, or so she said in her speech, as Mo'Nique emerged triumphant.  One of the great puzzles of 2009 remains who was in second place here.  My gut says Kendrick, who is the pretty young ingenue in this category, though I honestly could be convinced that anyone but Cruz was in second.  I also think that had Precious never been made this would have been the year that Julianne Moore finally won an Oscar.

My Choice: Like every sane individual, Mo'Nique also makes the top of my list.  I'll follow her with Kendrick in silver, then Farmiga, Cruz, and finally Gyllenhaal.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Is there anyone who doesn't side with Mo'Nique for the win?  Does someone want to defend the Gyllenhaal nomination?  Which of the Up in the Air ladies was your favorite?  And who was the best supporting actress of 2009?  Share in the comments!

Also in 2009: Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Film, Animated Feature, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2009

Past Best Supporting Actress Contests: 2010, 2011, 2012